Not worth the time or the $$ Tons of people and not 1 bite! Lots of disappointment in the customers faces

Very depressing lake when pulling in. The water is about 75 feet below normal. We use have some good catches but lately we been skunking out. Don't waste your money and time at this lake. read more

Just a short update, after my first visit to lake Irvine I wasn't able to fish it again till a week went by. I was hoping to net something in the 10 lb. range and was rewarded with two outstanding fish. My second rainbow of the morning weighed in at 9.25 lbs., my fourth and last rainbow trout sent the digital scale to a perfect 15.00 lbs.,which as of this post is the largest rainbow trout of this season. I know it's just a matter of time before this wonderful little lake will offer up an even larger fish to someone who enjoys fishing as much as I do. There's no reason why that someone can't be you, but just remember, I too will be there to raise the bar a little higher. Good luck! Ken Clark read more

So you want to do something in the heartland?. Get out and go to a lake. Learn and live the American experience by going for a drive up to Irvine lake. You don't even need to take a fishing pole with you because the tackle shop/café has one there for you to rent. Not a bad deal. Who knows, it may just spark something inside and you just might make it a traditional pass time. I have fished this lake with my girlfriend days, nights, hot ones and cold rainy ones. It is all an experience, or for some just a new adventure. Everyman should be able to cast a pole at least once in his life. I learned how to fish through experiences and all the great people one meets fishing. You would be surprised. The café folks have always been helpful and have a heck of a friedegg sandwich too. I have left without fish and then other times many. Nice to be in a private lake where ya just don't want to pay anyone else a public fee. It's a good cause. The variety of fun is open and great. There are seasons for species year round to fish. Lake is pretty big to have room enough for boats. Camping is fun as well. I remember taking my sister and her burning her little forehead on the lantern because she was cold and tried to warm up before we started a fire.. No scars but def a memory. The small things are what count in life. I am now 33 and getting ready for the trout opener. It's currently 6:50 and 10/31/2013 Halloween. Our small trailer (vintage aristocrat lo-liner) is packed up with snacks coats and of course fishing tackle. The same feeling I had at 21 and 13 yrs ol, is the same now. I feel like a kid ready to catch that big fishy. Bless this adventure and wish me luck this opener. read more

I love camping here! Right in our backyard but so far away from "life" and my iPhone works.... THE WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL is amazing.!!!! every year we are there. Warning: the staff is high/ uneducated/ hill people so expect a bit of run- around read more

great staff good fishing fun family endowment . i do think you guys should have more activities for family and kids when camping

Fished Irvine Lake on Wednesday (1/20) with my brother for his birthday. We were shocked at how low the lake is. Trout Island isn't an island anymore. It's not even a peninsula. The lake begins well past Trout Island now. Santiago Flats is truly flat. No water, you can see how flat it really is. You can pretty much walk all the way around the lake (except for the dam area) now. From Santiago Flats to the Red Clay Cliffs to Rocky Point and ending up in Sierra Cove. It's a hike, but do-able. The West Shore is also accessible all the way to the dam. Again, quite a hike, but do-able. We fished all day on the West Shore and caught 2 trout, both Tailwalkers about 2 1/2 lbs each. Lost another one and also lost a huge crappie. Closed out the day with a 3 - 4 Lb Largemouth Bass. Trout were caught on night crawlers and power bait. Bass and Crappie caught on night crawlers also. It was sad to see the lake down this far, but at the same time, it was beautiful and peaceful there. The lake was absolutely flat with no boating traffic and whisper quiet. You could hear conversations from across the lake. The water was like a mirror reflecting the hills and sky with only a slight ripple from an occasional breeze. The bald eagles, osprey's, and red tail hawks were doing their thing, and the ever present mud hens, mallards, egrets, and loud squeaky birds enjoying the calm at the lake. The lake has seen little pressure since the announcement of the closure. I'm guessing we were 2 of maybe 25 anglers there yesterday. We were warned not to travel to the West Shore until daybreak because of Mountain Lion activity there. We got there just gray light and started fishing. Didn't catch our first fish until 9:30. Caught our last fish at 3PM and called it a day. Saw one other angler at the fish cleaning station and he was cleaning 2 Catfish. It's going to be sad to see Irvine Lake close. I hope it opens again so people can enjoy this scenic fishing spot close to home. read more

I wouldn't recommend it. I've been fishing all of my life and this is simply a dirty pond. I rented one of their $150 a day pontoon boats. They have got to be ashamed to ask so much for such a piece of junk. The anchor ropes were completely frayed, in knots and hurt our hands. The boat was completely beat up. We caught less than one fish per pole and the cleaning station was a mess. When we got home we realized that we had left our camera on board the "boat". I called their lazy staff to ask them to please look for our camera. They responded: "call back in 3 hours when the shift changes and we'll tell you if it turns up". Well, it didn't. I waited 3 days for their "manager" to return to work. I called her only to hopefully hear: "We are sorry, we should have checked right away, we appreciate your business". Instead she treated me with disrespect and told me told me:"do what you have to" and hung up. There is no wonder why there were so few fishermen. read more

I have fished it off and on since 2005 with mixed results. Trick is to use line no larger than 4 lb test and fish off the bottom with inflated night crawlers. For lures on Super Bowl Sunday 2005 I caught about a 10 lb rainbow on a panther martin spinner copper color blade with black body and green spots on it. Sometimes you fish an hour per bite. If you are teaching someone to fish it is an alright place to go. read more

What a complete joke . I had MLK day off and my two boys and I found the website for this place , with pictures of fish like they were from Alaska. The website said they had stocked the lake 2 days prior. Well I called them and they said that people were pulling them out right and left from the shore. We got there and after paying nearly 80$$ dollars for tags and bait, we were disappointed to see that the "Lake" was nothing more than a dried up mud-hole. Absolutely disgusting port-a- potties with dried up feces smeared around. Broken glass and garbage strewn all along the shoreline. No shade, no picnic benches, you get the idea. all this would have been Bearable if there were at least some fish. unfortunately There wasn't even a bite. What a waste of money . The kids were beyond disappointed, and my 8 year old cried on the way home. I walked up and down the shoreline talking to other people fishing, all the same story, unbelievable. Do yourself a favor if your thinking of going here, don't . They will take you for everything your worth at the bait store , and laugh at your back as your walking away. Its been a long time since I was as disappointed as I was with this experience. read more

Went here to camp with the family. After reading the bad reviews I was hesitant, but I put on a happy face because my brother really wanted me to go to the Freedom Coalition Fest that was happening there that weekend. First off, when they say dry camping, they mean dry. Only one set of real bathrooms for the entire campground/lake. There were porta potties everywhere; yuck! This meant that we had to drive to go to the bathroom. Also, the "hot showers" that they advertise on their website are only available certain hours. The sign said that the showers were open from 7am to noon, but the staff said that they would allow us to shower until 8PM. To shower, you had to pay $2.00+leave collateral for the key. Our campsite was the only campsite with a tree. The tree shaded one campsite half the day and ours the other half. The shade was "meh". This campground is also backed up next to a freeway, so no peaceful nature sounds. No campfires or coal BBQing allowed. I have to say that making smores on the campstove did not compare. Not allowing campfires is ridiculous considering that the campsites are just dirt plots with no trees. Perhaps they do not allow campfires because there are no water spigots. Oh and get this... If you want water, you have to buy it by the liter because they do not sell gallons. How is it possible that they have a store on the campground that sells ice, drinks and snacks, but no gallons of water. In addition to all of this, the staff is rude. Don't try to make small talk or joke around because they will look at you like you are crazy. There are NO fish in the lake! The lake has so many plants and weeds growing in it. It has not been dredged or taken care of in a long time. I understand that there are bugs when camping, but this place seemed like it was on a giant ant hill. There were ants everywhere and the bugs were terrible! This place is absolutely not family friendly. Don't waste your money. We were supposed to spend two nights, but ended up leaving before the second night because is was so bad and the only reason we even stayed that long was because we were camping with my brother and nephews and everyone else bailed after the first night so we felt bad leaving them, but I just could not take it one second longer. read more

Place was nice and calm. It was really expensive. 22 per person, 10 bucks to rent each rod, and 150 for the boat. We spent a lot of money and didnt catch ANYTHING. There was 5 of us and only one 1 the WHOLE day. As we were leaving, the guy next to us asked us if we caught anything and we said said and he told us "We didnt either. We even went to the kiddy lake(he has like a 3 or 4 year old son) and not even my dad caught anything. We only saw one person who caught 1 fish. " At the sink there was only a little bit of blood for the size of one fish. There was also only one fish's skin in the trash from what i could see. We didnt see anyone with any fish. My mom called the day before and they said that they had just stocked up so i dont see how only one person caught 1 fish if they had just stocked up. This place would have received 5 stars if they actually had more fish. we spent 110 just to get in so they could have atleast had fish in there. Would not recommend this place to anyone but a lot of people left mad read more

There isn't much left of the lake due to the drought, but what deserves the rating is not the lake and the experience itself but it is the staff or I should say the people that yell at you. It was my first time at the lake so I didn't nowhere to park in line. So I asked an older Asian employee or I could wait and I couldn't understand him because he has a very difficult to understand voice. Most likely from smoking cigarettes or something. Mix that with an Asian accent I couldn't understand him at all, so as I asked him again where I was supposed to go to wait in the queue he started screaming at me as loud as he could, "FIRST TWO LINES FIRST TWO LINES IDIOT!" Now not knowing which of the set of lines were the first two (due to them not being numbered). I went in a line which were the first two on the left, be come back screaming again, "FIRST TWO, FIRST TWO!". One would assume that the lines closest to you would be the first two, but according to him I was incorrect. All I have to say is. That left an incredibly bad taste in my mouth and ruined a would be good day. The guys at the gate though were nice. Might be time for the older guy to go into retirement. read more

well here's an update as of 1/ 11 i think i went with my brother on the 1st week of jan......................... it stopped raining a perfect day water appeared clear no trash , lots of water........................ just to let you know i didn't want to go to this lake again .................... i've been burned one too many times.............but i let my brother talk me into it............... trolling top water middle and deep....................... bait....talked to a few other anglers and they too were fishless................... we all know how fishing works i've been doing this since i was 7 years old and i generally can go most any where and catch fish when others just sit there trying to figure out what i'm doing............. whats the secret................. keep trying something different unfortunately ....................here at irvine things just don't work anymore............mgmt at this lake needs to offer its customers a credit of sorts good on there next visit not that this would make up for all those times having caught nothing......................... its called good will and keeping a client base happy and they will keep comming back or would irvine lake management prefer fifty fishermen demanding refunds at 3:30 pm on saturday................... the orange county register would love this story........just a heads up irvine mgmt. don't continue trout plants that have not occurred, short trout plants instead of ? theres all kinds a of rumors on why only a small amout of people catch anything........................ read more

i have been going to Irvine lake ever since i was a kid. i almost never get skunked in the lake. the bad reviews im seeing are definitely because these people clearly don't know how to fish. this is a great lake and i recommend it read more

Too expensive for what you pay for, I agree. I should have read the reviews before coming here. Me and my wife spent one hour on our own boat without fishing, but half way through, an patrol guy, Donnie, said we must pay for it, and must wear life jacket (though we read that life jacket must be worn if you are under 13). We left them in the car and told him we will return with life jacket. Then he went on to tell us we must pay for launching the boat. $8, $10, he is not sure. We are not aware, then we said we will head to the office to pay. What did I say? He grabbed our boat, not letting us go (from the way he reacted to a calm conversation we had, a very uneducated man with lot of actions). I push his boat away from us so we are not colliding one another. He got mad, called the office, wow...so angry.....we then went to the office and asked for prices for everything in the park, those people are nice, they explained everything and exempt us from paying because our boat already off the water. Beware of this uneducated man, the patrol guy, Donnie. He might get action with you but do stay calm and he did so. read more

Irvine lake is great for a fun day of trout fishing. We usually fish from the shore and almost never leave without catching anything. It can get extremely crowded on weekends and the best spots are taken early in the morning, so go mid-week if you can; you will have much more shore space to yourself and the fish will be under a lot less pressure. Use very light line (no heavier than 4 lb test, and 2 lb test is best) and use garlic flavored or the green colored floating baits. I have also taken my son to the kids lagoon a few times and we have luck there, as well. The fish in the kids lagoon are not as big but it makes for a fun day with my son and he can learn the basics here. Also, try the breakfast burrito at the bait shop near the main entrance. Nice thin egg, bacon or sausage, breakfast potatoes, cheese, and a pretty good salsa. My wife used to laugh at me when I would tell her that it was my favorite breakfast burrito until she tried one and grudgingly agreed. One last thing...no license is required as this is a private lake so those of you who don't want to pay for a one day license don't have to worry about being checked by any park rangers, etc. Good luck! read more